Help:Editing

Hello and welcome to the wiki! We want you to enjoy your time here. In that spirit, the following is a list of "do" and "don't" activities that we hope will be helpful. Most of the items are based on common sources of confusion or error that have been encountered most frequently.

Please note this is not an exhaustive list of rules, but an effort to convey the general practices and conventions used on the Stardew Valley official wiki.

What is the Stardew Valley Wiki?

• This is the online encyclopedia of the game, not the social area. For social interactions and general gameplay questions, use the official forums, subreddit, or discord server.
• This is not wikipedia. Wikipedia conventions and rules may or may not apply.
• This is not any other game's wiki. Other game wikis' standards and conventions probably don't apply either.
• Please do not use the wiki (including your user page) to keep track of your personal game progress. The administrative staff of the Stardew Valley Wiki is small, and they do not want to review multiple edits for every milestone you've achieved in-game.

New Editor Restriction

Newly created accounts cannot make large edits or add hyperlinks. This is to combat spam and vandalism. If you're trying to make a large edit and encountering this problem, make a series of smaller edits, saving in-between, until you are no longer considered a new user. It's a good idea to save large changes to a text file on your computer, so your work isn't lost in case of problems.

Protected Pages

Some pages are protected from editing. These pages have a "View source" link at the top instead of an "Edit" link. You can make suggestions for corrections to protected pages indirectly, by clicking on the "Discussion" link at the top and making a comment.

Discussion Pages

Also known as "talk pages", these can be reached by clicking the "Discussion" link at the top of the page. Discussion pages are the place to propose large-scale changes to content or formatting, or to ask questions. Please sign your comments on discussion pages by typing 4 tildes ~~~~. These will automatically add your signature and a date/time stamp to the comment.

Editing

• Use the Show preview button before saving edits. Look for redlinks, formatting glitches, missing table cells, etc. and fix them before saving the edit.
• Provide a code reference when removing or changing existing information. (For more information about formatting references, see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Cite.)
• Discuss large scale changes before making them. Large changes to the English wiki must be carried out in 11 other languages. The time and effort required to implement the changes must be taken into account before the changes are made.
• For new pages that lack complete information, especially those related to new content, it's a good idea to place {{Stub}} at the top of the page.
• When updating a page after a game update, please add a "History" section to the page, or add to the existing "History" section. Example: {{History|1.6|Introduced.}}
• When making edits, please try to remember to edit all affected pages. For example, a change to Spice Berry may affect that page, the Spring Seeds page, Foraging, and Crafting.
  • Ensure that similar pages read the same. For example, don't change the wording about the profitability of Spicy Eel without changing the wording of all profitable recipes.
• Don't edit the Crops or seasons pages to add additional calculations of profit, ROI (return on investment), ROE (return on equity), or any other way to calculate gold per day. This issue has been discussed and debated for years, with multiple ways to display profit. The debate is over; if you wish to share your personal preference for calculating profit, create your own web page or post a link to a google spreadsheet on the official forums. There's a thread specifically for "Guides & Resources".

Writing Style

Use an encyclopedic style with a formal tone instead of essay-like, instructive, or opinionated writing. Wiki articles should have a straightforward, just-the-facts style. The goal is to present the facts, and let the reader decide how to use them. Ideally all information should be cited using references and verifiable by anyone, particularly those with access to the game's data files and/or game code.

Major vs. Minor Edits

Major edits change the meaning of an article, even if the edit is a single word. Minor edits do not change the meaning of an article, and consist of things like typo corrections and rearranging existing text. Both types of edits are valuable, and marking an edit as "minor" does not mean it isn't important!

If you've made a minor edit and checked the "minor edit" box, then proceed to make a major edit, please ensure the box is unchecked.

Formatting

Discuss formatting changes before making them. Explain what you feel is wrong with existing formatting, and how it could be improved.

Be mindful of the fact that the wiki exists in 12 languages, and changes to the formatting of the English wiki must be carried out in the other 11 languages.

Version 1.6

Editing & Formatting

Please note that new content added with version 1.6 does not require discussion first! Please add new information as it is discovered after the release of v1.6. Formatting of new content does not require discussion either. Please attempt to keep new content looking cohesive with existing content!

Remember to add {{Spoiler}} to pages and sections with heavy spoilers. Not every new change will require a spoiler tag. Examples of changes that do not require a spoiler tag: price adjustments, changes in percent chances to obtain an item, and changed gift preferences.

Please be sure to add to the "History" section for changed items. Thank you!

Images

For information about the wiki markup used to add images to pages, see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images.

• Please upload only Stardew-related images that will be used in the main or modding namespaces, not your user space. Avatars can be used on the official forums, subreddit, or discord server.
• Upload high-quality images using the smallest file size possible.
  • Use the game's "screenshot" feature, or use screenshot mode (F4) to remove the inventory bar and season/day/time display, unless it is relevant to the image.
  • Don't use the .jpg format for images containing transparency. Instead, use .png for static images and .gif for animated images. For large images, such as screenshots of an entire map area, .jpg format usually gives the smallest file size with good quality.
• When uploading a new version of an existing file, try to use the same file format as the existing image, even if the file size is large.
  • When uploading a new version of an existing image, it may take several hours for the new image to display on the wiki. This is a transient problem that keeps recurring, despite several fixes. If this happens, the only thing you can do is wait.
• When uploading non-English versions of existing images, please use the existing file name and append the 2-letter language code in capital letters to the end.
  • Example: File:Bundle Purchase.png. When uploading the German version, name the file File:Bundle Purchase DE.png. The full list of language codes is: DE (German), ES (Spanish), FR (French), IT (Italian), JA (Japanese), KO (Korean), HU (Hungarian), PT (Brazilian Portuguese), RU (Russian), TR (Turkish), and ZH (Chinese).

Bugs

Report game bugs on the official forums first, and not the wiki. The developer team does not monitor the wiki for bugs, but they do monitor the forums.

• If you have made a bug report on the forums that includes the platform, version, and language where the bug happened, then feel free to add the bug to a "Bugs", "Glitches", or "Exploits" section of the relevant page(s). Feel free to create the section if it does not already exist.

Translations

The English-language wiki usually contains the most current information about the game. When updating pages, please refer to the English wiki.

• Please be familiar with the game, and the words used in-game. Please use the words used in the game on the wiki.
  • For example, in Turkish there are two words for Fall: sonbahar and güz. The game uses guz exclusively, so the wiki should use güz exclusively.
• If you find bad translations, please report them on the official forums. There are separate threads for each language.
  • Until the translation is fixed, use the (incorrect) in-game name of the item. It's perfectly acceptable to add a "Notes" section to the page explaining why the translation is bad.
• Template names (and many of their parameters) must be in English. Examples:

  • {{Prezzo|120}} will cause a red link, which indicates an error.
  • {{Nome|Blobfish}} will cause a similar red link.
  • {{Name|澄んだスープ}} will cause a red link wherever it is placed, and an error at the bottom of the page.

  The correct format for these examples are:

  • {{Price|120}}
  • {{Name|Blobfish}}
  • {{Name|Pale Broth}}.

  These will automatically be translated into the native language. (Try it and see! Use that "Show preview" button!)

• Don't delete formatting that you don't understand. This includes internal and external links. If [[Animals#Produce|Animal products]] looks like gibberish to you, you should probably leave it alone and research mediawiki syntax first.
  • Feel free to translate around the confusing formatting. That is, translate what you know, and leave what you don't understand.
• Try to avoid using online translators for large portions of text.
  • If you use an online translator, review the edit before saving. Be sure it makes sense in the native language.
  • If the translator has changed names of items used in-game, please change them back before saving.
  • Please fix any wiki markup before saving. Online translators like to add whitespace and delete apostrophes.
• When creating new pages copied from English, please delete the appropriate link at the bottom of the page and add a link to the English wiki. For example, if copying the Beer page from English to Japanese, remove [[ja:ビール]] and add [[en:Beer]]. Please keep these inter-language links in the following order: de, en, es, fr, it, ja, ko, hu, pt, ru, tr, zh.

Templates

Template changes MUST BE DISCUSSED before being implemented. Template formatting and content should be kept consistent across all 12 language wikis. There are two exceptions to this rule:

1. Discussion is not required to translate terms used in templates copied from the English wiki.
2. Addition of new or existing items to Template:Name, Template:Description, and Navbox Templates (Templates whose name starts with "Template:Navbox") can generally be made without discussion.

Note that when translating Navbox templates, any major formatting changes should be discussed before being made.

More Info

For information about wiki markup and formatting, see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki.

Thanks for reading, and happy farming!